Lucy Goes to the Hospital
I-Love-Lucy.jpg CdsEa.jpg ilovelucy56a.jpg Previous episode: Lucy Becomes a Sculptress Next episode: Sales Resistance http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/ExplodingLucy.jpg http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/HospitalChaos.jpg Plot Lucy tells Ricky that the doctor said the baby should be born anytime now. Ricky is so anxious that he can't relax, and he keeps staring at Lucy like she's going to explode at any moment. Lucy calls the Mertzes and tells them to treat the news very calmly. So, Fred and Ethel initially act like this is old hat- babies are born every day. But soon, they can't keep their excitement under control, either. Lucy goes to lie down and rest while Ricky, Ethel, and Fred hold a rehearsal of what to do when Lucy needs to go to the hospital. Ricky says he will take care of Lucy, helping her on with her coat. Ethel is in charge of calling the doctor at the hospital. Fred has to carry the suitcase down to a cab. The trio perfectly practice this routine twice with great results. Shortly after the rehearsal, Lucy comes out of the bedroom and says that it's time to go to the hospital. Chaos breaks loose with all of the nervous excitement, and nothing works the way it was supposed to during the rehearsal. Ethel can't get through to the hospital because of a busy signal, and Ricky fights Fred over the suitcase, not remembering that carrying the suitcase was supposed to be Fred's responsibility. Ricky ends up spilling the suitcase's contents all over the floor, and when he hurriedly packs it again, he puts the telephone in the suitcase right along with Lucy's clothes. Once at the hospital, Lucy is whisked away to give birth, and Ricky is confined to the fathers' waiting room. He hopes that the baby is born soon, because he has to perform his new voodoo number at the club at 8 pm. The time ticks away, and Ricky soon knows that he's going to have to leave for the club. He calls Fred to bring the voodoo make-up kit, and Ricky hurries off to the Tropicana. While in the middle of his voodoo performance, Ricky is called away to take a phone call. The baby is here! He's finally a father! He goes to rush from the club to the hospital, but the audience stops him by asking whether the baby is a boy or a girl. Ricky realizes that he was so excited he forgot to ask! When Ricky does get to the hospital, he scares all of the nurses away with his spooky voodoo costume. But he finally gets to see his newborn son through the nursery window. Well, at least until he faints from the shock and excitement... Trivia *This episode is what truly made I Love Lucy a national phenomenon. Over 70% of the American public who owned a television tuned in to see the birth of Little Ricky. This episode aired the day before the inauguration of President Eisenhower and five months before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and far more people watched the I Love Lucy episode than either one of those televised historic events! A whopping 92% of the viewing audience watched the episode when originally broadcast! *Lucy's obstetrician is Dr. Joe Harris, named after Lucille Ball's real-life baby doctor. *Lucy and Desi were able to cleverly plan their second baby's birth to coincide on the same day that the birth episode of the show would air, since Dr. Harris scheduled all of his C-sections to be done on Mondays. So, both Little Ricky and Desi, Jr. were born on January 19, 1953. The reason that this was able to be feasible is because Lucy already knew she'd have to have a C-section for her second baby, since her first child was born by Caesarean. (Lucie needed to be born by C-section, because she ended up being in the uterus in an impossible-to-deliver transverse position.) Since C-section births are able to be scheduled, unlike normal births, Lucy and Desi literally got their cake and ate it, too. *So many fans and admirers sent Lucy flowers and cards when she gave birth that her whole hospital room was filled, as was the whole outside hallway! Lucy and Desi made sure to send a thank-you note to each and every one of the fans who sent congratulatory wishes. *It had long been decided that the Ricardos' baby would be a boy, no matter what the gender of the Arnazes' real-life baby turned out to be. Desi desperately hoped Lucy would have a son, because he was the last in line for his ancestry and needed a male heir to carry on the family name. Desi lucked out and got the son he longed for, but in case Lucy had given birth to a second girl, the Ricardos' baby was planned to be a boy. This way, Desi would have gotten to have at least had a TV son. *The night before Desi, Jr. was born (January 18, 1953), Vivian Vance had a dream that Lucy came to her in a white dress and said, "Vivian, I had a boy." *Had Desi, Jr. turned out to have been a girl, he would have been named Victoria Dolores. *This was Desi Arnaz's favorite episode of all time. *Having a TV father freak out and mess everything up when it's time for the birth has become a very common occurrence on sitcoms. *How in the world does Lucy's doctor tell her that the baby will come at "any time now" when she didn't even go in for a prenatal check-up?! Lucy was at home when she got the news! *Scenes from the chaos of trying to get Lucy to the hospital are the third flashback clips used in the Christmas special. The same scene was also used as a season 3 teaser trailer aired to get people excited about the upcoming return of new episodes. *Lucy's hospital room number was room 354. *Clearly, the field of obstetrics has come a long way since the '50s, but it seems puzzling that it was still common by 1953 that multiple births weren't detected prior to a woman giving birth. Not only is Mr. and Mrs. Stanley surprised at the arrival of triplets, but in the previous episode, Ethel talked about Jane Sebastian having surprise twins. Surely, if Mrs. Stanley and Jane had some sort of prenatal care, their obstetricians could have felt the movement of more than one baby! Quotes *Ricky: I don't have to be at the club until 8 o'clock. That gives you 3 1/2 hours have the baby! Lucy: I'll do the best I can... *Lucy: (to Ethel on phone) Ricky keeps staring at me like I'm going to explode any minute! *Ricky: The baby is due any minute! Fred: What's so amazing about that? You knew it would happen sooner or later! *Lucy: Ricky, this is it! *Ricky: Is this your first child? Mr. Stanley: My LAST! *Mr. Stanley: (bitter at the sight of his new triplet daughters) NINE girls! Fred: Well, you can always plan on a girls' softball team!﻿